A/N: Trigger warning. This chapter gets graphic.
"My baby, my baby" Rebecca smiled as she held her arms out, ignorant of the pain she was just in.
Kenny smiled, handing the tiny baby, who was wrapped in a towel from the gift shop, to his mother, saying as he did:
"Congratulations on your beautiful baby boy, Becca."
Rebecca cuddled her newborn son, as Kenny turned to the smiling faces of the others and said with a tired voice:
"Alright guys head to the next room, Bec's gonna need to breastfeed and I'll need you, Bonnie and Jane, to help clean Becca in her, uh lady parts."
The others smiled and left to go to the untility room, Jane complaining about why she had to do it. Y/N stopped and said to Kenny and Rebecca:
"I've got baby formula, in the truck, along with diapers and bottles. Grabbed everything I could that looked baby related."
"Yeah, Bill had us stock up for when the baby came" Bonnie said sadly, thinking of her friends back at Howes.
"We'll go when the walkers clear out. I'm sorry about Sar-" Y/N spoke with sincerity but cut himself off, unable to process the guilt he was feeling.
"We could hear what happened. You did everything you could, son" Kenny replied as Rebecca wiped a tear from her eye.
"I'll give y'all some space" Y/N replied, abruptly turning and leaving the gift shop. He entered the utility room next door where the others were sat and painfully lowered himself to the floor next to Clem, sliding down against the wall for support.
"How are you feeling, Y/N?"
"Not too good Clemmy. Not too good" Y/N replied gingerly. His left arm was holding his abdomen as he leant his head back against the wall behind him with his eyes closed.
"How's your uh- where- your stomach Y/N?" Clementine asked with deep concern. Y/N chuckled without opening his eyes.
"Sore. Real sore. I could block it out while shit was going down, but I think it's catching up to me."
"That would be adrenaline for you, Y/N" Luke said with a smile across from the teens: "and when it runs out pain can hit you like a tonne of bricks."
"Ain't that the truth" Y/N chuckled.
"Here have two of these, Y/N" Clementine said as she held the bottle of tablets out for him. Y/N opened his eyes and looked down, asking:
"What are these?"
"OxyContin" Clementine replied with a smile.
Y/N looked shocked. He knew oxy's- Merle had a nasty addiction to them and he was an even worse cunt than usual when he was coming down from them.
"Where the hell did you get Oxy's from Clem?" Y/N asked.
Before Clem could answer Luke replied:
"She and Jane robbed some guy for them, there's a whole bag of meds in the next room."
"You robbed him?" Mike asked in shock.
"He was a junkie hiding them in the garbage. I was worried about Rebecca and Y/N and Kenny" Clementine fired back.
Y/N swallowed down four of the tablets, Clem giving him a small cup of water she quickly grabbed from the other room- water fished out from the large bottle Mike had found and a cup from the gift room. Y/N gulped the lot down and then asked plain as day:
"Did you kill him?"
Clementine shook her head, replying:
"I told Jane to. She threatened him instead."
"Fuck" Y/N replied, a feeling in the pit of his stomach telling him this was going to be a problem.
"Jesus, you two sound cold as ice" Mike said with a stunned expression on his face.
"Enemies are loose ends that can come back and kill you in your sleep, Mike. It's why I killed everyone at Howes" Y/N said, leaning his head back against the wall again as Clementine interlocked her fingers with his right hand and rested her head against his shoulder.
"Damn. Now you just sound evil kid" Mike replied.
"I'm not evil, Mike. I'm just ahead of the curve" Y/N replied with a slur, quickly losing consciousness from the high dose of opioids he had taken.
—~—
Troy was laid on the former hospital bed, his wrists and ankles bleeding terribly from the ripped and shredded skin around the cold steel of the handcuffs holding him in place.
"Please please no more. No more" Troy sobbed to the teen standing over him.
"C'mon, Troy. You can take more than that. It's not like you'll need those fingers again" Y/N goaded sadistically, the tin snips he'd found in one hand, the blow torch in the other.
"You were right though. It does smell like burnt hamburger" Y/N chuckled. He placed his tools down and quickly ripped Troy's stinking left boot and sock off, disgusted by the smell as he did. He picked up the tin snips again and smirked:
"Eenie meanie minie, fuck it" Y/N chuckled, snipping off Troy's three smallest toes causing the man to scream and thrash and cry and howl again. Y/N placed the tin snips down, picking up the blowtorch. He snarled:
"You fucking pussy! We're just getting started!"
—~—
Y/N looked down at what remained of Troy laying naked in front of him. The sorry sight was mutilated beyond recognition, just desserts for a rapist who harboured evil intentions towards a thirteen year old girl. He had told Y/N as much as he tortured the teen up in Carver's office- little did Troy know it would come back to haunt him so quickly. Y/N had made Troy pay for every blow, every burn, every agonising moment he felt he was drowning. He gripped the blood soaked tin snips again, walking up and standing next to Troy's head as the man gargled on his own blood.
Y/N looked down at Troy's now-lidless eyes, staring back up at him:
"I know you can't answer me Troy, what with no tongue, but I want you to hear this- I'm gonna kill you now, but I'm not gonna kill you dead-dead. I just want that thought to kick in- you're gonna be laying strapped to this bed as a walker forever. When the flesh decomposes from your bones you'll still be lying here, trapped."
Y/N smirked, staring down at Troy before he rammed the tin slips into the man's throat.
—~—
Y/N's eye's shot open and he gasped, taking a few moments to get over his disorientation before he realised where he was, sat alone in the utility room except for Jane who was sat across from him with her head down.
It was now pitch black outside, and he couldn't hear the moans of walkers any more. He pulled himself to his feet somewhat groggily, walking towards the gift shop. He got around the corner and smiled, seeing Clementine knelt next to Rebecca, nursing the baby in her arms:
"See you're a natural" Rebecca smiled to Clementine. She looked up and smiled at Y/N, who walked passed and gingerly sat across from the pair. Everyone else seemed asleep.
"Hey honey" Rebecca smiled as Y/N sat. Clementine carefully handed the baby back to Bec and then got up and rushed over to Y/N, kneeling down and squeezing him tight.
"I was worried, but we couldn't wake you up"
"Handful of oxy will do that to you" Y/N chuckled as Clementine released the hug.
"Do you want a nurse of my baby, Y/N?" Rebecca asked sweetly with a warm smile.
"Oh, uh, are you sure?" Y/N asked. Rebecca smiled to Clementine and replied:
"Of course. Like I said to Clementine, you're family."
Clementine smiled as she stood, carefully taking the bundled up baby from Rebecca and walking over to Y/N, placing the baby in his arms.
Y/N looked down into the brown eyes of the tiny baby looking back up at him and felt an overwhelmingly sense of emotion he couldn't articulate into words. He hadn't never been so close to something so precious, so innocent before. He was so taken back he didn't realise Jane had popped her head round the corner, asking Clem to come over for a moment.
He continued to stare down at the baby who looked at him before contentedly closing his little eyes.
"You're a natural just like Clem" Rebecca said with a smile.
Y/N looked up at her with probably the first, genuine heartfelt smile Rebecca had ever seen from him as he replied:
"He looks just like Alvin you know."
Rebecca gasped, tears welling in her eyes as she replied:
"You think so?"
Y/N smiled and nodded, looking back at Rebecca again and replying:
"Definitely. His skin, his eyes, his nose. He's got Alvin's nose."
Rebecca laughed and wiped her happy tears from her eyes as Y/N smiled before looking down, a sadness growing across his face.
Alvin.
"What happened in there Y/N? What.. was Alvin...?"
Rebecca trailed off not knowing how to ask. Not knowing what to ask. Y/N understood though:
"Alvin.. when we... when they. Alvin didn't break, Rebecca. He was one of the bravest men I had the honour to know."
Rebecca broke at Y/N's words, very quietly sobbing, but was somehow also strengthened by them. Before either spoke again Kenny and Luke appeared suddenly at the front of the gift shop, climbing up quietly. Kenny walked in the gift shop, Luke noticing something to his left and heading into the utility room.
Kenny walked into the room and smiled, looking at Y/N nursing the tiny baby.
"Well look at you, you're a natural" Kenny said happily as he placed a bag down in front of Y/N's feet.
"Luke and I just went to get some baby stuff, you did good Y/N. Real good. We'll have enough food and that to stay here for a few days, let Rebecca recover."
"Yeah that's what I thought. I got what I could after I finished with Troy, but walkers had got in. It was a fucking shit show."
"Well we got a lot to thank you for that's for sure" Kenny smiled. Before Y/N could reply they heard Luke say loudly:
"Are you serious? She didn't say anything about leaving to me. What the fuck?!"
There was a bang on the wall and the baby suddenly jumped and started crying.
"Uh" Y/N said looking downwards at the baby in his arms.
"Shh shh" he added quickly, attempting to sooth the little guy. To his surprise it worked. Rebecca smiled at Y/N as Kenny walked next door angrily.
"I'm glad he'll have you watching over him, Y/N. I know you'll look out for him."
Y/N looked at Rebecca with sincerity as he slowly rocked the baby and said honestly:
"I ain't got much, Rebecca. But I got my word. I give you my word I'll do everything in my life to protect him. To keep him safe. To teach him how to survive."
Rebecca teared up again, looking at Y/N with a grateful smile as she replied:
"I know you will. And I'll be forever grateful."
—~—
Kenny came round the corner to see Clementine sat and Luke pacing angrily. Kenny whisper shouted:
"Hey! What the fuck is wrong with you? Do I need to remind you we've got a baby next door!?!"
"Sorry, I... sorry. Just... Jane's gone" Luke replied. Kenny was not impressed.
"Really?! Luke? Of all the childish bullshit!"
"Childish? Goddamn it, Kenny, you know what? Just... lay off"
"No. I ain't said nothing til now but you two put our lives, this baby's life at risk, so you two could roll around like fuckin' teenagers!"
"Look, I made a mistake, alright?" Luke replied. Kenny looked at him and sighed.
"Yeah. Yeah. Fuck. We just, we gotta think from now on. One cry from this kid could bring a whole herd down on us."
"How did you go at the truck?" Clementine asked hoping to maintain the peace.
"Good. Real good" Luke smiled, taking off his backpack and opening it to pass Clementine a couple of energy bars.
"We got enough for the baby for tonight, and for all of us to have something to eat. We couldn't carry more than that but we'll go out in the morning, get the rest" Luke said. Kenny nodded.
"Y/N did good. We'll have enough to stay here for a few days, let Rebecca recover a bit. But hey, Clem, come here for a moment real quick" Kenny smiled. Clementine stood and walked over, following Kenny round the corner and smiling as she saw Y/N rocking the baby gently and humming to him.
"Boy like him, everything he's gone through in his life, and he's a natural with a baby like that. That tells you what a good heart he's got deep inside. But you already knew that, didn't ya?"
"Yeah" Clementine smiled widely, her cheeks flushing as he stomach felt funny, seeing Y/N like this with a baby. She didn't understand it as she walked over with Kenny.
"Alright, Y/N, I'll take baby and let you two and mumma get some rest. Rebecca there's some awesome tins and bars and such in that bag next to you. Have something to eat" Kenny smiled.
"But, are you-"
"Eat, Becca. You need to recover" Kenny smiled. He gently took the baby from Y/N and smiled, sniffing him and saying "you never forget that baby smell."
He walked further into the gift shop and set himself down, as Clem handed Y/N one of the energy bars.
"Thanks Clem, it's been what, a week? I'd eat the ass outta a skunk at this point."
"Ew" Clementine giggled, the two eating and laying down, Clementine laying gently against Y/N for warmth, pulling his arm around her body.
"I've missed this" Clementine smiled, blushing, which was new. She heard Y/N say behind her tiredly: "me too" before sleep quickly over took them both.